class=”sc-29f61514-0 fQbOYE”>
One million francs. The Green Party has never received a donation of this magnitude. The donor was Carmita Burkard Kroeber, the party recently announced. Your campaign budget for the parliamentary elections in the autumn has doubled in one fell swoop.
The Greens have long disclosed their finances. From a donation amount of 10,000 francs, they publish the amount and the name of the donor. But since last autumn, the other parties must also comply with transparency regulations for the first time. This has been decided by parliament in 2021. The rules will be applied for the first time in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.
This article first appeared in the “Observer”. More exciting articles can be found at www.bewachter.ch.
This article first appeared in the “Observer”. More exciting articles can be found at www.bewachter.ch.
On the one hand, the provisions relate to the national parties. Among other things, they must announce party donations of more than 15,000 francs once a year and state who made the donations. On the other hand, the new transparency rules apply to federal elections and voting campaigns. Those who want to launch campaigns with more than 50,000 francs must now announce the budget. The first campaign budgets for the elections can already be viewed on the website of the responsible federal audit office at Politikfinanzierung.efk.admin.ch.
Lobbywatch strongly criticizes the scheme
The co-chair of the independent transparency platform Lobbywatch, Otto Hostettler, thinks the new regulation is insufficient: “It’s better than nothing, but it’s bad.” Major donors can easily be disguised by, for example, putting forward associations or foundations. The public therefore does not find out who the money really comes from.
Another point of criticism: the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) receives and publishes the annual accounts of the parties. At the same time, the SFAO is also responsible for control. The problem with this: the donation data is also published if false information is suspected. Only if a corresponding criminal procedure leads to a conviction will the information be noted in the register as incorrect. “Wrong donation data has practically no consequences,” says Hostettler, who works as an editor for The Observer. Because the budgets are only accessible online for three years.
Another drawback of the new arrangement: “For interested voters, the publication of the donations is completely unmanageable,” criticizes Lobbywatch’s co-chair. That is why the Opendata.ch association, the Investigativ.ch network, Lobbywatch and the research collective WAV are now working on a clearer platform.
Geneva and Ticino have had their own regulations for years
The federal government does not play a pioneering role with regard to transparency regulations. Since 2011, the cantons of Geneva and Ticino have had binding rules on the disclosure of political donations. In the canton of Friborg, the party financing law of 2018 was clearly accepted by the population with 68.5 percent. The canton of Schwyz passed a corresponding law in 2019. In cantons without a corresponding law, the cantonal parties and voting commissions are still not required to disclose their budgets and major donors.
In order to also demand more transparency about party finances at the federal level, an impartial committee submitted the initiative “For more transparency in political financing” in 2017. With Parliament’s indirect counter-proposal in 2021, the initiative was withdrawn – and the counter-proposal was eventually accepted.
Source:Blick
I am Liam Livingstone and I work in a news website. My main job is to write articles for the 24 Instant News. My specialty is covering politics and current affairs, which I’m passionate about. I have worked in this field for more than 5 years now and it’s been an amazing journey. With each passing day, my knowledge increases as well as my experience of the world we live in today.
